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What are the preparation guidelines for a version update?

Environment:

Oracle B2C Service

Resolution:

This answer summarizes Oracle's recommended actions to complete an Oracle B2C Service version update. When an update begins, a full production clone is automatically created, and is then updated to the targeted version. That clone is known as the upgrade site. The upgrade site is a complete copy of the production database and configuration files, but excludes file attachments. After your upgrade test site is created, you will have a fully functional Oracle B2C Service site you can use for user acceptance testing. 

Auto Update Program (AUP):

AUP delivers the latest product capabilities through scheduled, reoccurring updates. This enables your business to provide maximum value to your customers, call center agents, and Oracle B2C Service administrators. AUP allows you to keep up to date on Oracle B2C Service features, security and functionality. There are four application releases during the year: February (A), May (B), August (C) and November (D). The Oracle B2C Service Version Update Policy is important to understand. See What is the Auto Update Program (AUP)?

Enabling Service Mailboxes:

When your upgrade site is created, copies of the Service mailboxes on your production site are added to the site. You can use these mailboxes for testing purposes, but there are several points to be aware of.

• If a mailbox on your production site is hosted by Oracle, a new mailbox is created on Oracle mail servers and the mailbox is added to your upgrade test site.
• Mailboxes on your test site are disabled by default. These must be enabled before you can use them for testing incoming and outgoing email. The steps to enable mailboxes differ depending on whether your mailbox is hosted by Oracle.
• Mailboxes on your upgrade site have the same names as the corresponding mailboxes on the production site, with the suffix tst# (where # is a number) added to them.
• The values in the Envelope From / Bounce Address, Display Name, and POP Account mailbox fields also have tst# (where # is a number) added to them. Do not delete the tst suffix from these field values or your production mailboxes might be impacted. The Envelope From / Bounce Address is not copied or modified with tst# for mailboxes not hosted on Oracle mail servers; values will need to be entered if enabling a non-hosted mailbox for testing.
• All contact and staff member email addresses on your upgrade test site are appended with .invalid. This prevents test messages from being sent to your customers accidentally. To test email functionality using a contact or staff member email address, you must remove .invalid from the email address you want to test with. You can also test with new contact and staff member accounts you create on the upgrade test site that have valid email addresses.

Custom Files Management During the Update:

When your upgrade site is created, the database, interface configuration options, and files accessible from the File Manager are copied from your production site to your upgrade site.

• PHP Scripts—scripts/custom/src
• Customer Portal—CP3 development/staging folders (these files are also compiled during the file sync process)
• Knowledge Foundation images—For instance, euf/assets, rnt/rnw/img

It is important to note that files in these folders on your upgrade site are overwritten during the file sync process and are not recoverable.

Update Testing:

1. Start with an advantage: Keep a "healthy" database size. Please see why Data management is crucial to maximize Oracle B2C Service success
2. Getting ready to test:
   • Ensure that your network and workstations comply with the Oracle B2C Service Infrastructure Requirements
3. Best practices for testing:
   • Empower your experienced Oracle B2C Service agents and administrators to be the primary UAT testers. These power users make ideal testers because they are more likely to notice if any change occurs in application behavior.
   • Focus on “end to end” test flows and try to keep UAT as light touch as possible. For example starting a chat via the customer persona, working that chat as an agent persona, and finally concluding the chat. A second example is submitting a service request through Customer Portal and working that incident to conclusion. This approach enables you to test across the application in one testing flow.
   • Report any issues or changes in application behavior to Oracle through our Ask Technical Support link. When submitting a service request please be sure to provide very detailed replication steps, including expected behavior and observed behavior, which workflows you were testing, and including screen shots to enable speedier issue resolution.
   • Post update consider retiring certain aspects of your test plan that proved successfully over previous updates. Lean on Oracle for quality.

Service Update Notifications:

Service update notifications describe compatibility exceptions and feature deprecations, and should be reviewed by Oracle B2C Service administrators.

You can access the SUN report specific to the version you're updating to by logging into the upgrade site using an account with administrator permissions. These notifications provide descriptions of changes that may result in different behavior or functionality from previous versions and descriptions of deprecated functionality.

Cutover (go live):

The production downtime is approximately ten minutes and can be scheduled on nearly any day or time, Oracle Cloud Operations maintenance windows excluded. It is important to refresh your test site approximately one week after the production cutover using Configuration Assistant.